


When the Pedestal Breaks

by Silver_Shortage_in_Markarth



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Being thrown out, Disownment, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt feelings, M/M, Other mushy and or poorly executed touchy feely shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2020-12-28 10:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21135569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Shortage_in_Markarth/pseuds/Silver_Shortage_in_Markarth
Summary: The bigger they are, the harder they fall.And if they're the apple of their daddy's eye, Yoba help them.





	When the Pedestal Breaks

With all due respect, Demetrius should really have called ahead. Or he should've at least knocked on the door to Harvey's clinic first. Instead, he'd ended up walking in on the very last sight that he had ever truly expected (or wanted, to be more accurate) to see. 

He hadn't seen a whole lot of what was going on, but he'd seen enough to know what exactly he'd been looking at. 

It started when Demetrius noticed that Maru had forgotten the nurse's hat part of her work outfit. Although most people would brush it off as trivial, he still figured he needed to check on his dear Maru. 

Robin had told him to just let it slide, that forgetting once wouldn't be a serious problem, but Demetrius wouldn't hear of it. 

"I also want to know whether or not there are any plans on her moving some of her things into the basement," was what he'd added on. Ever since Maru's older half-brother Sebastian had flown the nest upon his marriage to the town farmer, his old bedroom downstairs had become all but abandoned. It seemed perfect (if a tad funky smelling) for storage. 

Robin had just sighed in resignation, and just told her husband to hurry back. 

...

The sight that Demetrius ended up seeing had quickly burned itself deep into his mind. He ended up dropping Maru's hat onto the ground, quickly forgetting it in favor of staring at the compromising position she and Doctor Harvey were in. 

Demetrius practically had to force himself to turn around and leave the clinic. Once the shock wore off, he was left with...nothing. Somehow, looking at his half-naked daughter bent over the counter, getting railed from behind, just caused all his emotions to drain out. 

"Dad!" Maru cried out to him when she'd managed to get her clothes back on and run out the door. "Dad, wait! It isn't what it looked like!"

"Demetrius, please!" Doctor Harvey called out to him then. "We can explain!" 

But Demetrius simply ignored them the rest of the way back home. 

...

"So how'd it go?" Robin asked once Demetrius got back to the shop. "Hard at work, was she?" When she didn't get an answer, that was when the concern set in. "Demetrius?" 

Again, he didn't respond. All he did then was slowly walk to his and Robin's bedroom, and lock the door behind him. Not even the rapid knocking or the frantic begging of his wife for some kind of an explanation stopped him from whatever it was he was about to do. 

It wasn't anything extreme; all Demetrius really ended up doing was pull out a bottle of whiskey and take a good long swig of it. Somehow, that ultimately factored into the most drastic decision the scientist had ever made in his life. 

Needless to say, Robin knew to steer clear of her husband when he came back out and went into Maru's room. 

...

After the embarrassing incident at work, Maru was sent home early to try and reason with her father over what he'd ended up walking in on earlier. It weren't as if she or Doctor Harvey were really planning for that to happen; it had really been not much else than a heat of the moment thing. 

Maru's hopes were that she could tell Demetrius as such. Sadly, those hopes were quickly dashed once she saw the bulk of her mechanics and machinery outside in the garbage can. Anything that didn't get trashed beyond repair sat in a beat-up looking rucksack next to all the computer guts. 

"I'm sorry honey," Robin said to her daughter when she came to the front door and peeked out from behind. "Your father refuses to let you back into the house. Something about how he 'needs to let you go now'. I'm afraid to ask right now what he means by that-"

Robin was interrupted at that moment by a loud shattering noise coming from further inside the place. A quick glance caused her to clap a hand over her mouth, her eyes growing as big as saucers.

"Demetrius!" She cried out as she ran back into the house. "What are you _doing_?! You've had this lab since Sebastian was a toddler! Your pride and joy!" To hear her own mother sound so defeated and then horrified while speaking was especially devastating. Even so, Maru decided to go to the next person she could think of for shelter. 

...

That plan also ultimately proved futile. Maru knew of two other people she could go to, but neither were able or really willing to take her in. 

The first person, her best friend Penny, gave the admittedly valid reason of not having enough room for her in the trailer she and her mother lived in. 

"I don't want you to be here when Mom's drunk, either," Penny added on. "I just want you to be safe."

The other person was her half-brother Sebastian. The two never really got along over the years (not for a lack of trying on Maru's part, though), but hopefully he was willing to help her out.

He wasn't; when Maru visited the farm he lived on, she wasn't greeted by her brother. Instead she was greeted by the farmer, her brother-in-law. His half-dressed state lent a clue towards what he and Sebastian had been up to. He certainly didn't look very happy to see her anyway. 

"No, he isn't available for you to annoy," was what the farmer said to her before Maru even got a word out. "Now if you don't mind, he and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary. So go build a robot or cure cancer or something." As a final insulting gesture, he shooed her away off his porch. 

As he closed the door, Maru caught a quick glance of Sebastian sitting at the breakfast table, calmly sipping at a large mug of coffee. His facial expression was impossible to be read from that distance. 

...

Finally, Maru found herself in the place where this whole disaster started; the clinic. Doctor Harvey was at least gracious to the point where he let her live with him. Maru could hear him downstairs right now, arguing (actually _arguing_) with the mayor about his 'indecent behavior' from today. 

Flopping onto her side on his bed, Maru took off her glasses and slapped her palms against her face. For the first time since it all started today, she then let herself shed her bottled up tears. 

Her father, once her closest ally, now wanted nothing to do with her. Everyone else was either unwilling or unable to help her out. It was probably safe to say that her life as she knew it was officially over. How precisely things were going to work out from here on, not even she knew for certain. 

All Maru could do now was just hope and pray to Yoba for the best. 


End file.
